Thanksgiving Week

Week 25 :  Thanksgiving Week

I learned my lesson from last week:  When I try to add pictures in the email from my iPad I lose most of the text.  That is why your letter was so short last week.  From now I'll just send pictures in a separate email. 

This week was pretty okay.  We had lots of meetings and stuff, plus Thanksgiving, so we didn't get too many appointments in even though we tried really hard!  We had the temple trip which was super rad!! 

I guess I haven't ever explained how having a temple in the mission works, so here goes.  We get to go once a transfer, and they schedule an Elders’ day and a Sisters’ day.  Sisters usually go at the beginning of the transfer, and Elders at the end. So, it was a bit early this transfer, but that's okay. We do an endowment session if we have time, if not we can do initiatory or sealing work.  This week we also did service at the Visitors Center putting up lights for the upcoming Festival of Lights!  It was super fun festive to help there.  

On Thanksgiving we went to our bishop’s house for dinner because most of the Young Single Adult ward left town. It was very nice!  We had good food, and got to see a video of bishop skydiving for his 60th birthday!  I felt pretty sick that day, so I didn't eat too much, but I'll send a picture of what I did eat. I was also surprised at how much I missed you all...I thought it would just be another day and it'd be fine, but I realized that was my first Thanksgiving away from home, and started feeling a bit too grown up too fast...  But, I'm doing better now that December has begun and Christmas is in view! 

The last couple of days this week were frustrating for both Elder Herring and I, because everyone was gone for the weekend.  So we got adventurous and drove all over the southern half of the mission checking on people I've never even heard whispers of the whole five months I've been in this area.  It was fun, but lots of driving. We left notes but didn't meet any of the people on our list.  It is frustrating that other missionaries send records of anyone in their ward who is Young Adult age and a less active.  We are expected to be able to know who they are with little to no background info and they usually live 1-2 hours away so we ended sacrificing a large portion of our day trying to find them.   

I don't think I'll be in this area much longer.  Transfers are on December 10th.  I'll either leave the area next week or the next.  It's gonna be really sad when I leave this ward...I love it here.  Today we went to the DC 3rd ward because Elder Herring was baptizing someone!  It was pretty fun.   It was so interesting to see another ward in the mission.  DC 3rd comprises four different bike areas plus a French group meets with them, so there are around ten missionaries in that ward. 

Elder Herring and I are doing awesome!  (The one piece of info we received last week was that there had been a mid-transfer switch in companions for Bennie.) We talk a lot and we get along pretty well so I'm not complaining! 

Love you guys!!

Elder Sorensen